Legion of Super-Heroes #5 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Nothin'!

Review:

It's the Christmas issue! Oh yes it is; that's exactly what it is.

I have strong opinions about the superhero story and its conventions. I believe that a superhero story is about some kind of conflict that is ultimately expressed and resolved through physical conflict. So you'd think I wouldn't like an issue like this, where you'd have to really stretch to find any such element of the "story". It's just a day-in-the-life issue where we check in on all the Legionnaires and see what they're up to. I liked it quite a bit.

Not the first such issue I've liked; another of my favourites was the Infinity Inc. issue way back when that followed up on the Justice Society story where the JSA are all condemned to fight Ragnarok over and over forever. No combat in that one, either; it was just really good. Anyway, yes, this issue is a bit of a rulebreaker, but anytime Paul Levitz wants to get experimental he has my full support.

One thing I've always liked about Levitz's handling of the Legion is the way he establishes that former Legionnaires, like (in this book) Garth and Imra and Blok and Mysa and Chuck and Luornu, may not be on the team at the moment but are still part of the cast. They're off the team but not off the book. I think that's not only a realistic approach, but also a pleasant one.

Notes:
- so Computo isn't smart enough to come up with "Stonehenge" when he's looking for big old stones? I don't blame Dreamy, who's an alien, but you'd think Mon-El would have twigged to it
- Luornu seems to be "Duplicate Damsel" again. Damsel, Girl, Lass, whatever, just pick one and stick to it
- I don't believe I've ever seen the word "piss" in a Legion comic before

Art: 107 panels/20 pages = 5.4 panels/page. No splash pages; 1 10-panel page.

Yes, yes; Walt Simonson, all very well and good. And he did a nice job. I wouldn't call him a great fit for the Legion, but what the hey. Simonson and Levitz were generous with us, too; this thing was packed full.

Check out Element Lad's face, page 5, panel 6. He's not into her at all, is he?

Membership Notes:

We find out that Quislet disappeared in battle sometime between LSHv6 and LSHv7. Glad to have it said, but I hope Levitz isn't just throwing him away.